NEW YORK, NY -- "Perma-Fix, based in Atlanta, operated its flagship chemical treatment facility just outside of Dayton, Ohio, about 200 miles east of Newport. The contract called for Perma-Fix to neutralize the caustic sodium hydrolysate and dispose of the waste by pumping it into the local sewer system.
The Army didn't think it needed to hold public hearings on the matter, or to file an environmental impact statement on the plan. Perma-Fix officials said they went about briefing a number of local elected officials before they signed on.
But when neighbors of the Dayton facility got wind of the Army plan toward the end of 2002, alarm bells rang. The shared opinion was that the Army was trying to pull a fast one.
Soon, the Army found itself not just tangled in a public relations disaster but in a federal lawsuit filed by a group called Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley," David Levine, Conde Nast Portfolio.

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP -- "Drafts of state and federal permits for hazardous waste operations and air emission controls at the troubled Perma-Fix of Dayton plant are now open to public comment.
In addition to sending letters or e-mails, the public can attend a hearing on a renewal and modification of the plant's state hazardous waste permit this Tuesday, June 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the Jefferson Twp. Trustees Building, One Business Park Drive, Dayton. The public also can comment via letter or e-mail on a draft of the federal air emissions permit," Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

ATLANTA, GA -- "Under the agreement, Perma-Fix of Dayton will take action to address relevant air pollution regulations and permit requirements and to pay a civil penalty of $360,000. Perma-Fix of Dayton has also agreed to spend a total of not less than $562,000 for three environmental projects at the facility to achieve air emission controls that go above and beyond those required by any current environmental regulations. Perma-Fix has previously disclosed details regarding the second component of the lawsuit, comprised of the citizen's suit and that Perma-Fix of Dayton, Inc. has reached an agreement in principle to settle the citizen's suit component. Under the agreement in principal, Perma-Fix of Dayton would pay a total of $1,325,000," CNN Money.

JEFFERSON TWP -- "The settlement, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Dayton, resolves long-standing allegations that Perma-Fix failed to comply with the federal Clean Air Act and requires the company to meet those standards as well as to secure state permits for handling 101 pollution sources at the plant. Neighbors have complained for years that they suffer from nausea, dizziness, headaches and breathing problems as a result of odors from Perma-Fix. Perma-Fix officials had argued that the company didn't release enough hazardous air pollutants to require a special permit holding it to the standards of the Clean Air Act," Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

PORT ARTHUR, TX -- "The turnout was small, the enthusiasm was evident, and the message was clear at Carver Terrace Park Saturday - VX waste is not welcome in Port Arthur. 'We're having a disproportionate amount of chemicals being dumped on us,' proclaimed a lively Hilton Kelly with a group of about 25 supporters behind him. 'How much more are we going to take?' he pressed the crowd to a modicum of applause. 'Enough is enough. Hilton and his group, Community In-Power Development Association, (CIDA)... sponsored and organized a rally and march to inform the public of the VX nerve agent wastewater that is being disposed of by incineration at the Veolia plant in Port Arthur," Fred Davis, The Beaumont Enterprise.

PORT ARTHUR, TX -- "Once again an impoverished Texas neighborhood, in this case in the town of Port Arthur, has become the disposal point for hazardous waste, only this time the waste is potentially so lethal that a drop the size of a pinhead can kill. A chemical-weapons facility in Indiana is destroying obsolete weapons containing VX nerve agent, producing caustic wastewater that the Army is shipping to Veolia Environmental Services for incineration. The Army has claimed the waste is no more dangerous than kitchen cleaners. But when environmental scientists began looking at the disposal process, they found scary scenarios. The 'neutralized' waste still contains some VX, and the incinerators might not destroy all of it. There are no monitors on the incinerator smokestacks to sound the alert if it isn’t eliminated. And VX components in the water could reconstitute in shipping tanks under certain conditions, endangering lives along the transportation route," Rusty Middleton, The Texas Observer.

DAYTON -- "In May 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency joined a lawsuit against Perma-Fix filed by a citizens group concerned with the facility's compliance with the Clean Air Act. Centofanti also said last week that his company is approaching resolution with the citizens group and the EPA.
'I think we can say that we're making progress.' said Ellis Jacobs, an attorney for Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons and one of the attorneys for Barbara Fisher, a Jefferson Twp. resident who sued Perma-Fix," Thomas Gnau, Dayton Daily News.

PORT ARTHUR, TX -- "Environmental groups opposing the incineration of nerve gas wastewater at a local facility are now waiting for a federal judge to decide if the U.S. Army must permanently stop the shipments to Port Arthur...The Community In-Power Development Organization, a Port Arthur group founded by Hilton Kelley, said no one in the community had been told the possibly toxic material was being brought their neighborhood. CIDA was joined by The Sierra Club, the Chemical Weapons Working Group, Citizens Against Incineration at Newport and other Port Arthur plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed May 8. The suit requested an injunction to stop the shipments," Marilyn Tennison, The Southeast Texas Record.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- "The Sierra Club joined chemical weapons activists Tuesday in suing the Army over shipments of nerve agent waste from Indiana to Texas for incineration, alleging that the liquid waste is more hazardous than the military claims... Last month, the Army signed a $49 million contract with Veolia Environmental Services to incinerate about 2 million gallons of the chemical waste, which is called VX hydrolysate. That agreement came after two failed deals with Perma-Fix Environmental Services Inc., in Dayton, Ohio, and DuPont Co. in Deepwater, N.J. were abandoned because of strong opposition," Rick Callahan, Associated Press.

PORT ARTHUR, TX -- "'It's disgusting to know that all across America, when you mention Port Arthur, Texas, that it's considered the toxic dump site of North America. It's disgusting to know people are turning their backs on little children and old people and letting them stew in toxic waste,' said Kelley, 46, a community activist. 'It's not right, and I am not going to stand by and let anyone come and dump toxic waste in my community,'" Monica Rohr, Associated Press.

PORT ARTHUR, TX -- "A company with a U.S. Army contract to incinerate chemical waste from the deadly VX nerve agent will open its doors to the public in an effort to allay concerns about the project.
Veolia Environmental Services received its first shipments of VX hydrolysate last week in trucks from Indiana's Newport Chemical Depot, where the VX was destroyed in chemical reactors.
Earlier this month, the Army finalized a $49 million contract for Veolia to burn about 2 million gallons of the chemical waste over the next three years," Associated Press, Houston Chronicle.

PORT ARTHUR, TX -- "The inactive VX nerve agent waste product set to burn near Port Arthur today is an example of a more pervasive problem - companies engaging in lucrative business without regard for the welfare of the local population, a community activist said Thursday. Hilton Kelley, director of the Port Arthur-based Community In-Power Development Association, held a meeting Thursday to plan protests against the shipping and disposing of the nerve agent waste product at Veolia Environmental Services outside the Port Arthur city limits on Texas 73," Paul S. Martinez, The Beaumont Enterprise.

At a press conference protesting the shipment of hydrolysate to Port Arthur, Hilton Kelley displays a letter to Texas Representative Ted Poe containing 43 signatures from around the U.S.
Ashley Sanders / The Port Arthur News

PORT ARTHUR, TX -- "The first shipments of chemical waste from deadly VX nerve agent being destroyed in Indiana arrived at a Port Arthur, Texas, plant on Tuesday, hours before two activist groups called on the Army to immediately halt further shipments... Hilton Kelley, the director of Port Arthur's Community In-Power Development Association, said Port Arthur has eight major oil refineries and three chemical plants, and residents there suffer from respiratory ailments and other maladies they blame on toxic releases.
'We are pretty upset about the fact that we weren't even given a notice about this shipment coming to our area. There was no public comment period or anything,' Kelley said," Jessica Holloway, KFDM.

Feb 2: Army at 'square one' with VX wasteOfficial says remains of deadly nerve agent could be disposed of at Newport complexNEWPORT, IN -- "The Army said it's 'back to square one' in determining what will become of 2 million gallons of wastewater from a nerve agent's destruction since DuPont Co. has abandoned the project. Army spokesman Greg Mahall said Thursday that military officials are studying several methods for disposing of the waste at the same western Indiana complex where the deadly Cold War-era VX nerve agent is being destroyed.Before DuPont's announcement, the Army had been pressing to ship the wastewater, called hydrolysate, from the Newport Chemical Depot," IndyStar.com.

Jan 6, 2007: Nerve-agent plan dumpedDuPont will not be helping the Army dispose of 4 million gallons of watered-down VX in the Delaware

DEEPWATER, NJ -- "Under heavy pressure, DuPont Co. yesterday dropped out of an Army plan to dispose of caustic wastewater from the destruction of the deadly VX nerve agent in South Jersey.
DuPont's decision ends the three-year fight over the plan. Up to four million gallons of treated, watered-down VX would have been shipped by truck or train through four states from a chemical weapons stockpile in Indiana to DuPont's Chambers Works in Deepwater, Salem County. There, it would have been dumped into the Delaware River," Troy Graham, Philadelphia Inquirer.

Signing ceremony for the Chemical Weapons Convention in Paris, January 13, 1993.

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Pentagon has extended its timeline to destroy its aging chemical weapons arsenal until 2023, despite concerns by Congress and watchdog groups that the stockpiles raise the risk of an accident or theft by terrorists. The new schedule, outlined in Pentagon documents obtained by USA Today, means the military won't eliminate its stock of deadly nerve gases and skin-blistering agents until 11 years after the 2012 deadline set by the international Chemical Weapons Convention," Pete Eisler, USA Today.

WASHINGTON, DC -- "The Army wants to destroy its stockpile of the Cold
War-era nerve agent, which is stored in Newport, Ind. A tiny drop of the
liquid in its raw form is considered fatal. Under the proposal, the Army
would neutralize the VX and haul as much as four million gallons of hydrolysate,
a corrosive byproduct, to Salem County by truck or train. It would be further
treated at the DuPont Chambers Works in Deepwater, near the Delaware Memorial
Bridge, before being released into the river. The Army has said its proposal
would be as much as $347 million cheaper and two years quicker than on-site
disposal of the VX," Joel Bewley and Sandy Bauers, Philadelphia
Inquirer.

DAYTON -- "There are developments in the battle between Jefferson Township
residents and the Perma-Fix waste treatment plant. Residents say the smell
coming from the plant is unbearable. In response, the company's plan was
to extend the current smoke stack from 40 to 50 feet high. But now that
won't happen because the Board of Zoning Appeals rejected every part of
their plan. Residents call it a victory, but concede their fight with the
company is far from over," WDTN.

DEEPWATER, NJ -- "Some
groups and local residents say they will oppose any moves to increase DuPont's
wastewater discharges to the Delaware River regardless of the report's findings...
'This river hasn't been fit for years,' said Marvin Powers, a retired autoworker
who lives in Pennsville, N.J., near the river and just south of Chambers
Works. 'I don't think you should dump anything else in that water,' Powers
said. 'They say that a man should only eat one fish out of there a year
as it is, and a woman shouldn't eat any. It's only going to get worse if
they put more in the river from that plant,'" Jeff Montgomery, Delaware
News Journal.

DAYTON -- "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is adding pressure
on Perma-Fix of Dayton to comply with the federal Clean Air Act by joining
a lawsuit already filed by neighbors of the industrial wastewater treatment
plant. The U.S. Department of Justice filed the federal court motion Friday
on behalf of the U.S. EPA. The motion asks that the EPA be permitted to
intervene as a plaintiff to seek 'injunctive relief and civil penalties
against Perma-Fix for alleged violations which parallel certain claims asserted
in the citizen's suit,'" Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

WEST DEPTFORD TWP, NJ -- "New Jersey environmental groups -- and those
in five other states -- called on the U.S. Army Thursday to revive plans
to treat the neutralized byproduct of a deadly nerve agent in Indiana instead
of shipping it to DuPont Chambers Works Plant in Deepwater, Salem County.
The current plan calls for 4 million gallons of hydrolysate, post-treated
wastewater produced from the destruction of the VX nerve agent, to be dumped
into the Delaware River," Trish Graber, Bridgeton New Jersey News.

JEFFERSON TWP -- "Esther R. Miller has lived across the street from
the Perma-Fix of Dayton plant for 11 years. For the past 10, the 64-year-old
retiree has wrapped a blue tarp around her porch to help keep out the odor
from the industrial wastewater treatment plant. 'Sometimes it's a smell
like tar burning,' Miller said. 'Sometimes it's like a sickening sweet smell.'
The odor makes it hard for her to breathe, she said," Jim DeBrosse,
Dayton Daily News.

MARIETTA -- "Coalition
members include the Ohio AFL-CIO, Ohio Citizen Action, the Ohio Academy
of Trial Lawyers, the Ohio Environmental Council and the Ohio Public Interest
Research Group. At the same meeting, Laura Rench of Jefferson Twp. said
information gained from public records was a major factor in stopping the
Army from transporting a stockpile of diluted VX nerve agent to Perma-Fix
of Dayton for treatment at the company's hazardous waste station about a
mile from her home," William Hershey, Dayton Daily News.

INDIANAPOLIS -- "The Newport depot holds a stockpile of more than 250,000
gallons of VX, which is so deadly that a tiny droplet can kill a person
in minutes. As of Friday, 8,772 gallons of the agent had been destroyed,
creating 48,257 gallons of hydrolysate, a wastewater the Army has compared
to liquid drain cleaner. The Army wants to ship the hydrolysate to a DuPont
Inc. plant in New Jersey for treatment and disposal in the Delaware River.
But that plan has generated opposition in New Jersey and Delaware,"
Rick Callahan, Delaware News Journal.

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP -- "Perma-Fix
neighbors came to Tuesday's meeting with federal officials armed with stories
about a rotten smell, and allegations of health problems. 'It's a really
strong smell,' said Gregory Plantz, who lives on south Iona Avenue, and
whose family has been plagued by strange health problems. 'It stinks.' Plantz
and his wife were among the more than 30 people who attended Tuesday's meeting
with representatives for the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry,
a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," Lou Grieco,
Dayton Daily News.

DEEPWATER, NJ -- "Activists
in four states called yesterday for the Army to abandon plans to ship
the chemical residue of a deadly nerve agent from an Indiana depot to
New Jersey for disposal in the Delaware River, arguing it would be safer
- and ultimately faster - to treat the substance where it is now. The
environmental and public advocacy groups from Indiana, New Jersey, Delaware
and Kentucky said that in the face of growing opposition, it's unlikely
the Army will succeed in its plans to ship the VX nerve agent's byproduct
to a DuPont Co. plant in New Jersey... Craig Williams, director of the
Chemical Weapons Working Group in Berea, Ky., said that despite growing
opposition to its plan - and the failure of a previous proposal to dispose
of the hydrolysate at a plant in Ohio - the Army appears set on pursuing
the DuPont disposal," Rick Callahan, Philadelphia Inquirer.

NEWPORT, IN -- "The Army's
controversial and problem-plagued plan to destroy VX nerve agent stored
at Newport, Ind., just hit another snag: The waste by-product of VX neutralization
is flammable. Under current plans, the Army would neutralize VX at Newport
and transport the by-product, called hydrolysate, to a DuPont facility in
New Jersey for secondary treatment and ultimate disposal in the Delaware
River. But continued VX destruction along with the transport plans came
to a halt when the Army discovered during lab testing that the hydrolysate
has a flash point of 68-88 °F instead of an expected flash point of
greater than 200 °F," Lois Ember, Chemical and Engineering News.

NEWPORT, IN -- "The analysis showed the flash point ranged between 68 and 88 degrees, project manager Col. Jesse L. Barber said. That temperature is far below what other tests had shown, Barber said. The flash point is the lowest temperature at which the vapor of a combustible liquid can be made to ignite. A flash point of less than 200 degrees Fahrenheit is considered flammable, Barber said. 'These analyses show a difference from testing done at the laboratory and the production scale,' Barber said Wednesday. 'I've got my entire engineering staff looking at this.' The Army had previously compared hydrolysate to drain cleaner," Newsday.

WASHINGTON, DC -- "An accidental spill of a deadly nerve agent at an Indiana weapons depot
has raised concerns about plans to treat a byproduct of the nerve gas at
a New Jersey facility and dump the residue in the Delaware River. New Jersey
lawmakers have ratcheted up their protests since the June 10 accident at
the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana. No one was injured, but an estimated
30 gallons of VX nerve agent and its byproducts spilled into a containment
area where workers were trying to dispose of the deadly substance. 'If VX
cannot be safely kept at an Army base, I certainly don't see how the people
of New Jersey can trust the process to be secure enough for a 750-mile journey
and another round of chemical processing,' said Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J.,
during a Tuesday news conference," Jennifer Brooks, Delaware News
Journal.

WILMINGTON, DE -- David Boothe of DuPont Fluoropolymer Solutions said, "'Since all still need to use APFO [ammonium perfluorooctanoate] to make fluoropolymers, this program is not designed to replace this essential processing aid. DuPont will instead add a step to our process that removes nearly all APFO from our aqueous dispersions to accomplish the goal. We expect to announce availability of these next-generation aqueous dispersion products soon.' In addition to source reduction technology for APFO in dispersion, DuPont also is offering royalty-free access to its patents and technology for PFOA emissions abatement, water treatment and recovery for reuse," release, DuPont Chemical.

BRATTLEBORO, VT -- "Environmental attorney Sanford Lewis told SocialFunds.com, 'At some point, didn't management owe investors much more information on the mounting evidence and the emerging trends showing increasing scrutiny of this substance, before there were lawsuits and EPA claims against the company? You can argue about whether, when and how any individual item on PFOA should have been disclosed, but the aggregate effect of withholding this whole cluster of issues was to blindside investors in a way that Securities law is supposed to prevent," stated Mr. Lewis. . . 'Information that's been disclosed so far comes out of the lawsuit involving one DuPont facility, but there are several other DuPont facilities where they use or produce PFOA,' said Mr. Lewis. 'We don't know, and DuPont has not disclosed, what kind of liability exposures are associated with those facilities,'" William Baue, Social Funds.

JEFFERSON TWP, MONTGOMERY COUNTY -- "Perma-Fix officials say the process is a spin-off of one first developed at the company's Jefferson Twp. plant in 2003. That was before protests from neighbors and local officials forced the Army to abandon a plan to ship neutralized VX nerve agent there, treat it at the plant and discharge it into the county's waste water system. The company then moved its research into several laboratories, including the company's headquarters in Gainesville, Fla., said Louis F. Centofanti, chief executive of Perma-Fix. 'All we ever got out of this in Dayton was tremendous grief,' Centofanti said Friday. 'We've moved all of the chemical research out of Dayton because of so much negative reaction.' It's not clear what the new process will mean for Perma-Fix. The Army said Friday it is not soliciting new technologies for disposing of an estimated 4 million gallons of VX waste products at its Newport Chemical Depot in Richmond, Indiana. . . .'I wonder how we can trust' that Perma-Fix has discovered a safe solution to disposing of VX waste products, said Mary Johnson, a Jefferson Twp. resident and a member of the grassroots group now suing the company," Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

WOODBURY, NJ -- "A process to destroy stockpiles of the nerve agent VX may not completely remove the presence of the deadly chemical set for ultimate disposal at the DuPont Chambers Works in Salem County, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study due for release today concludes. 'There is the possibility of trace elements of VX nerve agent in the hydrolysate,' U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews, D-1st Dist., of Haddon Heights, said following a CDC briefing Tuesday. 'A drop of VX nerve agent that will fit on the head of a pin will kill you,' Andrews said. 'That's how lethal it is.' Army data suggests a 'minimal' level of exposure will prompt an increased heart rate, salivation and nausea. A higher level of exposure can within minutes cause respiratory paralysis and death.
Andrews suggested the Army and DuPont "are not sure" if there will be trace elements of VX in the hydrolysate. Andrews concluded after reading the 85-page study that the Army and DuPont 'should not go forward' with a plan to ship neutralized VX agent from Indiana to Deepwater 'until at least some very serious questions are answered,'" John Barna, Gloucester County Times.

JEFFERSON TWP --
"Gayle Gibbons doesn't want to look out of the front window of her Trotwood
home and see a landfill. Last summer, she organized Call for Action, a group
working to block development of a 600-acre landfill proposed by Waste Management
Inc. Gibbons recently used the Ohio Public Records Act to obtain all communications
 memos, letters, emails and phone records between Trotwood officials
and their attorneys concerning the landfill. 'There is a platitude that
says information is the lifeblood of democracy,' said Ellis
Jacobs, an attorney for Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, who worked
with the group. 'There are no truer words than that. Without knowing what's
going on, citizens can't hope to influence public policy.' Jacobs made weekly
trips to the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency in Dayton. He found RAPCA
investigators had documented years of citizen complaints about foul odors
believed to be emanating from the Perma-Fix plant. The group also got reports
from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency showing the types of hazardous
materials being processed at the plant. That, Jacobs said, 'told the neighbors
that what they were smelling could very well include a lot of these hazardous
compounds,'" Margo Rutledge Kissell, Dayton Daily News.

NEWPORT, IN -- "The Newport Chemical Agent Destruction Facility begins its 45-day pre-operational
demonstration today, a process necessary to obtain final approval to begin
destruction of nerve agent VX. 'We are ready,'said Darla Eslinger, director
of the Parke County Emergency Operations Center. In a release of a VX plume,
wind direction might determine if people in Newport shelter in place until
the plume passes over or evacuate, and to which direction they are to evacuate,
Eslinger said. If time allows, some communities might be told to evacuate
and given directions on which way to go to stay out of harm's way, Eslinger
said. If there is fallout from a VX plume, people may have to shelter in
place until a walkway is decontaminated to remove them safely," Patricia
L. Pastore, Terre Haute Tribune-Star.

DEEPWATER, NJ -- "The Defense Department is considering reshuffling its
stockpiles of chemical weapons in an effort to speed up their disposal,
an approach one watchdog group said could lead to shipping the chemicals
around the country to take advantage of existing destruction sites. A DuPont
Co. treatment plant in Deepwater, N.J., adjacent to the Delaware Memorial
Bridge already treats wastewater from the Aberdeen plant and has offered
to treat neutralized wastes from the Indiana site. State officials in Delaware
and New Jersey and environmental groups have raised concerns about hazards
from discharging the wastewater into the Delaware River," Jeff Montgomery,
Delaware News Journal.

DREXEL -- "Greg and Carol Plantz and their five young children have developed so many health problems in recent years they've turned their living room book shelves into a pharmacy. Lined up among the baby pictures and knick-knacks are 25 medications. For Greg's dizzy spells and sinus problems. For Carol's asthma and migraines. For four children with asthma, sinus problems and allergies. For a fifth child who may have a kidney disease. 'None of us had health problems before we came here,' said Greg Plantz, who moved his family nine years ago to 111 S. Iona St., two blocks from the Perma-Fix of Dayton industrial waste treatment plant at 300 S. West End Ave., off West Third Street. The Plantzes -- Greg, 39, and Carol, 33 -- were among 40 or so Drexel and Jefferson Twp. residents near the plant who voiced their health concerns Thursday night to a team of environmental health experts from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The ATSDR team met privately with residents at Radcliff Middle School. 'I'm about to walk away from this house,' Plantz said before the meeting. 'It's not worth my children's health,'" Jim De Brosse, Dayton Daily News.

The chemical stockpile at the Newport Chemical Depot
consists of 1,690 ton containers, all holding the chemical agent VX.

DEEPWATER, NJ -- "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reviewing
a final-draft evaluation of Army plans to send nerve agent disposal waste
to a treatment plant in New Jersey near the Delaware Memorial Bridge, an
agency spokeswoman said Thursday. VX ranks among the world's deadliest chemical
weapons, potentially lethal if even a tiny droplet touches the skin. The
Army has said no detectable amounts of VX will survive after processing
through a custom-built neutralization factory in Newport, Ind. DuPont late
last year announced that it had a potential breakthrough method for controlling
wastewater pollution from the neutralized VX. The process causes some phosphorus-based
compounds to settle out of wastewater before it is discharged to the environment.
Delaware officials had reported concerns that those compounds or the phosphorus
itself could prove harmful to the river," Jeff Montgomery, Delaware News
Journal.

DAYTON -- "Jefferson Twp. residents
near the Perma-Fix industrial waste treatment plant filed suit Thursday
asking a federal court to do what air pollution control agencies have failed
to do during the past three years  force the plant to reduce its emissions
and meet the standards of the Federal Clean Air Act. The suit was filed
in U.S. District Court of Southern Ohio on behalf of Barbara Fisher, 43
West End Ave., and other neighbors of the plant by Advocates of Basic Legal
Equity, a nonprofit public interest law firm. 'All we want is to be able
to go outside like (people in) other communities  plant flowers, open
our windows if we want to. Just breathe,' Fisher said in a press conference
after the filing Thursday," Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "Laura Rench, a Jefferson Twp. resident and a supervisor for the Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District, will receive Ohio Citizen Action's highest honor in recognition of more than a decade of activism on local environmental issues.
Rench was among a handful of mostly Jefferson Twp. residents who blocked an Army plan to ship 900,000 gallons of waste product from a chemical weapons plant in Indiana to a treatment plant in Jefferson Twp., where the waste was to be treated further and then discharged into the Montgomery County sewer system. The Citizens for Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons, a grassroots group whose key members included Rench, Mary Johnson, Willa Bronston and Michelle Cooper, garnered proclamations against the plan from 47 governmental and civic organizations in the Miami Valley, including the Montgomery County Commission.
The Army dropped its plan in October of last year," Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

DEEPWATER, NJ -- "The DuPont Co. has reported a potential breakthrough method
for controlling some types of wastewater pollution, spurred in part by public
objections to a plan for treating chemical weapons disposal waste at a company
complex along the Delaware River. Nicholas C. Fanandakis, a DuPont vice
president, said the process causes some phosphorus-based compounds to settle
out of wastewater before it is discharged to the environment. One objection
to the chemical weapons disposal plan was that those would be harmful to
the river. Environmental groups claim the wastewater, which would have some
qualities similar to drain cleaner before treatment, could carry small amounts
of the original VX nerve agent to be destroyed in the project. The wastes
also would contain two obscure and potentially toxic phosphorus-bearing
compounds, ethylmethylphosphonic acid and methylphosphonic acid (EMPA and
MPA) and other contaminants," Jeff Montgomery, Delaware Online.

Oct 14: Dayton's Laura Rench wins 2004 Metzenbaum Award

CINCINNATI -- Dayton's Laura Rench has won the 2004 Howard M. Metzenbaum Ohio Citizen Action Award, the highest honor the organization can give. Since 1996 the Award has been presented to Ohio grassroots leaders who best reflect Sen. Metzenbaum's example of principled tenacity. Rench was a leader of the remarkable community campaign that forced the U.S. Army to abandon its plan to treat VX nerve agent hydrolysate in Dayton. The Award will be presented to Rench at a December 7 event at the Civic Garden Center on the grounds of the Hauck Botanic Garden in Cincinnati. At the event, from 6:30 - 8:30 PM, with the program beginning at 7:00 PM, other awards will be presented to Dayton's Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons, Rohm and Haas Cincinnati, and Karen Arnett. For more information, contact Ruth Breech, Southwest Ohio Program Director, Ohio Citizen Action, (513) 221-2100.MORE ON METZENBAUM AWARD

JEFFERSON TWP -- "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered
Perma-Fix of Dayton to fix and monitor air-pollution problems at its industrial
waste treatment plant within six months or face fines of up to $32,000 per
violation a day  the maximum allowed under the Clean Air Act. Neighbors
of the plant and clean-air advocates say Perma-Fix has had numerous chances
to comply with federal standards and should be fined immediately. "It's
time for serious enforcement. The folks out there are continuing to have
to breathe these uncontrolled emissions," said Ellis Jacobs of Advocates
for Basic Legal Equality, the nonprofit public interest law firm representing
the neighbors around the plant. Perma-Fix, 300 S. West End Ave. off West
Third Street, has long been a source of complaints about odors from its
Drexel and Jefferson Twp. neighbors, some of whom say they have suffered
nausea, dizziness and breathing problems," Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily
News .

INDIANAPOLIS -- "Army officials have pushed back until late this year plans to begin destroying a deadly nerve agent stockpiled in western Indiana after the project's test run raised nearly 200 operational and safety-related issues. In the spring, Army officials had expressed hope they could begin neutralizing
1,269 tons of VX nerve agent in July or August at the Newport Chemical Depot.
During the six-day test of the neutralization process, Army contractors
used water as a stand-in for VX -- an oil-like liquid that can kill a healthy
adult male with a single pinpoint droplet. The Environmental Protection
Agency is helping the CDC evaluate the ecological impact of DuPont's plans
to dump the treated hydrolysate -- a chemical the Army compares to liquid
drain cleaner -- in the Delaware River," Rick
Callahan, Associated Press.

DAYTON -- "Two neighbors of
Perma-Fix, the controversial wastewater treatment facility in Jefferson
Twp., have filed an appeal with the state's Environmental Review Appeals
Commission, seeking to reverse a decision earlier this month by the Ohio
EPA that would permit more toxic wastes from the plant to go to Montgomery
County's western treatment plant. Barbara Fisher and Esther Miller, who
live on West End Avenue next to the plant, filed the appeal Thursday because
of foul odors from Perma-Fix that they say permeate the neighborhood. The
Ohio EPA modified its pretreatment permit for Perma-Fix on July 1, at the
request of the Montgomery County Commission. The appeal says that the permits
issued by the Ohio EPA, 'fail to put any limits on the discharge of
toxic organic chemicals by Perma-Fix,'" Dale Dempsey, Dayton
Daily News.

JEFFERSON TWP, MONTGOMERY COUNTY -- "A public hearing to consider new limits for hazardous metals released into Montgomery County sewers drew more than 60 residents with a litany of concerns about the environmental impact of Perma-Fix of Dayton Inc.'s hazardous wastewater treatment plant. Most left the meeting frustrated and with unanswered questions. 'All of our concerns have been totally shut out,' resident Laura Rench said. . . .Douglas McLin, a facility manager for Perma-Fix, said the company is interested in being a good neighbor. . . .Leroy Hutchins, 71, of Englewood owns rental homes near Perma-Fix. He said he worries about the odor wafting from the plant's smokestack and the safety of sewer lines where Perma-Fix's wastewater flows. 'I don't think industry like that should be located in a residential neighborhood,' he said. Ella L. Norwood, 58, said her doctor has detected arsenic in her blood and zinc in her hair. 'I just want to know where it's coming from,' she said," Joanne Huist Smith, Dayton Daily News.

JEFFERSON TWP, MONTGOMERY COUNTY -- "Township residents living near hazardous waste treatment company Perma-Fix of Dayton Inc. will meet tonight for a public hearing about what the plant can release into county sewers. Residents are alarmed about odors from the company's wastewater treatment process. They've asked the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta to make a health assessment of the neighborhood. The assessment is pending. This is the first time in Ohio that residents have requested a hearing about a local limit permit review, said Mari Piekutowski of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Local limits refers to the amount of pollutants that a wastewater treatment plant receives.
The Ohio EPA is holding the hearing to consider doubling the amount of the hazardous metal zinc Perma-Fix releases. Levels of arsenic and silver would be decreased. The hearing begins at 7 p.m. at Jefferson Twp. High School, 2701 S. Union Road," Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "Rose Campbell, 55, who lives at 225 Cherokee Drive, two houses from the entrance to the plant, said odor problems continue unabated in the neighborhood. Perma-Fix officials are 'saying it's not as bad now, but that's because we're not outside as much' because of the cold weather, Campbell said. 'It's still the same.' Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley, the grassroots group that stopped the Army's plan last year to ship neutralized VX to the plant for Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley, the grassroots group that stopped the Army's plan last year to ship neutralized VX to the plant for treatment, has shifted its focus to eliminating the odor from the plant.
'It's not just that (surrounding) neighborhood being affected, but the whole community,' said Laura Rench, a Jefferson Twp. resident and member of the grassroots group. 'We've discovered that a lot of people driving through (the West Third Street corridor) are assaulted by it on a daily basis,'" Dale Dempsey, Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "DuPont has submitted a proposal to treat the hydrolysate at its Chambers Works Secure Environmental Treatment Unit in Deepwater, N.J., according to Terry Arthur, spokeswoman for the Newport facility. . . The Army and Parsons Corp., the company hired to destroy the nerve agent, canceled the $9 million contract with Perma-Fix in October in the face of mounting local opposition. The turning point came when Montgomery County refused to issue a sewage discharge permit to Perma-Fix for the treated hydrolysate. Arthur said DuPont has started an outreach program in New Jersey in hopes of avoiding the type of opposition that halted the plan in Ohio. Mary Johnson, a member of Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley, the group that formed soon after the Perma-Fix plan was revealed in December 2002, doesn't think sending hydrolysate to New Jersey is a good idea. 'I don't think that's wise,' Johnson said. 'New Jersey's waterways are thoroughly contaminated already, aren't they?'," Dale Dempsey, Dayton Daily News.

Laura Rench, Michelle Cooper, Jane Forrest Redfern and Mary Johnson celebrate after a united community campaign forced the U.S. Army to abandon its plan to treat VX nerve agent hydrolysate in Dayton (Jan Underwood, Dayton Daily News).

DAYTON -- "This collection of work from 2003 represents the bright moments: The favorite photo of each photographer. You may have seen them before or be viewing them for the very first time. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did taking them," Skip Peterson, chief photographer, Dayton Daily News, article dated Dec 28.

DAYTON -- "Just a week prior to the announcement, Jeffrey Brubaker, the Army's site manager at the Newport Chemical Disposal Facility in Indiana, said 'public acceptance is not a requirement or a deliverable in the contract' with Perma-Fix. Turner has noted that the contract specifically required outreach activities 'intended to establish a measure of public acceptance for planned hydrolysate transport and disposal work. Completion of (the) work may be contingent upon the establishment and maintenance of public acceptance throughout the subcontract period of performance,'" Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- Testimony, Mary Johnson, Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley (24 KB .doc), and Ellis Jacobs (79 KB .doc), before the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, U.S. House Committee on Government Reform.

Will actress Alfre Woodard play Dayton's Mary Johnson in a Hollywood movie about the VX campaign? Will Vanessa Williams play Willa Bronston? How do these rumors get started?

DAYTON -- "The citizen activists invariably laugh when asked, 'Are you the next Erin Brockovich?' 'There were many Erin Brockoviches,' said activist Mary Johnson, referring to an extraordinarily broad-based coalition that transcended racial, geographic and political barriers. If Hollywood does a casting call, Johnson knows which actress she'd pick to play herself: 'Alfre Woodard. She has that nitty-gritty tenacious spirit.' It took a tremendous amount of tenacity for the core group of a dozen or so volunteers to defeat the proposal. [Willa] Bronston and Johnson, both retired, worked more than full-time during the past year. 'We'd have been into overtime,' Bronston noted. One day they worked from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m., starting out with breakfast with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and ending at dinner with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In the end, they persuaded some 36 governmental bodies and community groups to draft resolutions opposing the treatment of VX at Perma-Fix," Mary McCarty, Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "Members of the Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley, a grassroots opposition group that formed soon after the Army announced its plans here early this year, greeted the news with elation.
'It just goes to show you what a community of different people can do when it comes together,' member Mary Johnson said. 'That's what it should be about — collaboration,'" Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

NEWPORT, IN -- Ohio site won't be used for chemical disposal; Subcontractor was to eliminate substance that is created by destruction of VX gas, Associated Press.

DAYTON -- "Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. today announced that Parsons, the systems contractor for the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility located in Newport, Indiana, has directed Perma-Fix of Dayton, Ohio, to stop work on the subcontract related to the treatment of hydrolysate produced during neutralization of chemical-agent VX at Newport. With this action, Perma-Fix's Dayton, Ohio, site is eliminated as an alternative for the disposal of the Newport hydrolysate and the contract to treat these materials in Dayton is terminated. Parsons has the prime contract with the Army to design, construct, operate, and close the chemical agent neutralization facility located at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana.
Dr. Louis F. Centofanti, chairman and chief executive officer, stated; "This stop work order ends our efforts to treat these materials in Dayton," release, Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc..

DAYTON -- "Montgomery County Commisioners got a chilling report this week
on the Army's hope to treat neutralized VX agent here... reading between
the lines, what the report says to local officials is that the Miami Valley
can't assume the Army knows what it's doing or that the military is looking
out for this community's safety. Rather, the Army's priority is getting
rid of 1,200 tons of deadly stuff that's sitting in Newport, Ind., and that
Congress wants destroyed now. The mission--not the method or the Miami Valley--is
its focus," Editorial, Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "Miami Valley residents will have the chance to hear Army and Perma-Fix officials, under oath, answer key questions about the Army’s plan to dispose of neutralized VX nerve agent here. . . . [U.S. Rep. Michael Turner] is hoping the hearings will elicit a straight answer from the Army about a clause in its contract with Perma-Fix that appears to require "public acceptance" of the disposal plan. . . . 'They've never given us a consistent answer,' said Turner’s aide, Stacy Barton," Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "Montgomery County Sanitary Engineer Jim Brueggeman announced at Tuesday's commission meeting that his department would not issue a permit for Perma-Fix of Dayton to discharge treated waste products from neutralized VX nerve agent into the county's wastewater system. 'The sanitary department has determined that Perma-Fix's proposal cannot be approved given the considerable number of unanswered questions, incomplete, missing or inadequate data, apparent treatment process deficiencies and the risks — health and ecological -- involved,' he said. . . Audience members at the commission meeting, many of them Jefferson Twp. residents, lauded [Bruce E. Rittmann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University] for his work. 'He has validated everything we have learned throughout the past year,' said Laura Rench, a township resident and member of the grassroots opposition group, Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley," Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "The 25-page report by Bruce E. Rittmann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University, raised enough safety concerns 'to stop me dead in my tracks,' Commissioner Vicki Pegg said. 'I don't know how you couldn't give serious pause to this project after reading this report.' . . . Members of a grassroots group opposed to the Army plan — Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley — said the report confirmed their fears. 'They should not be doing this in a residential area,' said Mary Johnson, who lives in Jefferson Twp. where the Perma-Fix plant is located. 'I don't want this to be another Isotec (Inc.),' where a chemical explosion last week forced the evacuation of thousands of Miami Twp. residents," Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

JEFFERSON TWP -- "A recent demonstration by Perma-Fix of Dayton shows it can safely dispose of the waste products from the Army’s neutralized VX nerve agent. But opponents of an Army plan to ship a million gallons of VX by-products to the Jefferson Twp. waste treatment company said the study was too small to be valid and that the samples lacked a chemical stabilizer present in the Army’s VX stockpiles in Newport, Ind. 'What a waste of taxpayers' dollars,' Jane Forrest Redfern of the Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons in the Miami Valley said Monday. 'They were testing apples and they should have been testing oranges,'" Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

ATLANTA, GA -- "Perma-Fix hasn't given up on the idea of treating the byproduct in Dayton but is working with the Army on alternatives. One option would be do the work at the Newport depot," David McNaughton, Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

WASHINGTON, DC -- "VX neutralization was to begin this October, and the hydrolysate sent to a Perma-Fix facility in Dayton, Ohio, for biodegradation. This plan has run into fierce opposition. 'It doesn't appear as if the counties around Dayton will accept the hydrolysate,' [Greg Mahall, spokesman for the Army's Chemical Materials Agency] says," Lois Ember, Chemical and Engineering News.

JEFFERSON TWP -- "An Army plan to truck 300,000 gallons of a byproduct
of the nerve agent VX from Indiana to the Perma-Fix waste plant in Jefferson
Twp. is absurd and could prove hazardous, a Legal Aid attorney told citizens
at a rally Thursday. “Instead of treating it in a rural area where nobody
is around, they want to bring it to this neighborhood,” said the attorney,
Ellis Jacobs. “Dragging something 200 miles to process it in a neighborhood
is probably not a good idea. . . VX is the most toxic chemical weapon,”" Amelia Robinson, Dayton Daily News.

NEWPORT, IN -- "The Army said
it will delay destruction of a deadly
nerve agent at the Newport Chemical
Depot until early 2004 because the plant
doesn't yet meet environmental standards
or have a sprinkler system. A federal
lawsuit in Ohio, announced last month,
also might add to the delay of a process
ordered by international treaty and
shadowed by terrorism," Associated
Press.

ANNISTON, AL -- "The military is still handing out protective hoods and other safety gear to many of the 35,000 people who live within nine miles of the
Anniston incinerator. Sarin, also known as "GB," is so deadly that a drop on the skin can kill. The military contends incinerating the weapons is far safer than
storing them. Incinerator spokesman Mike Abrams said the nerve agent VX
and mustard gas also are stored at Anniston, but officials decided to
begin with sarin rockets because nearly 800 of
them are leaking," Jay Reeves, Associated Press.

DAYTON -- "The head of the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency said Tuesday he would oppose the treatment of VX hydrolysate at the Perma-Fix waste plant in Jefferson Twp. until company officials prove they can control the plant's odor problems," Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

Aug
5: Group: Army will delay burning chemical weapons

ANNISTON, AL -- "The U.S. Army has agreed to delay for two days the burning of hundreds of Cold War-era chemical weapons in northern Alabama, a spokesman for an environmental group opposed to the effort said Tuesday," Reuters.

DAYTON -- "'What are we, chopped liver?' asked Ellis Jacobs, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society of Dayton and the lead attorney in the lawsuit filed Thursday against the Army in U.S. District Court. 'They examine Indiana in great depth and they don't even mention this community. Do they think, 'We'll just skip it, and maybe nobody will notice?'' But people did notice, and they have put together a remarkable grass-roots coalition that just might succeed in blocking the move," Mary McCarty, commentary, Dayton Daily News.

NEWPORT, IN -- "As of Monday, the Army had not met its 20 parts VX per billion requirement when conducting neutralization tests, said Jeff Brubaker, project manager at the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Neutralization is slated to begin in October. The majority of the VX stockpile contains a stabilizing agent that leaves more VX in its byproduct than the 20 parts per billion allowed by Army standards. In addition to continued work on the neutralization process, Army and Parsons Inc. officials are forming contingency plans in case the hydrolysate can't be shipped to Ohio. The Army contracted Parsons to build and operate the neutralization facility," Patricia L. Pastore, Terre Haute Tribune-Star.

KETTERING -- "Kettering City Council plans to vote tonight on the VX controversy in Jefferson Twp., possibly joining 15 local governments that have opposed the shipping of a nerve agent byproduct from Indiana to Ohio for treatment. . . .
Kettering City Council member Keith Thompson said the council decided to take a stand after hearing from two Jefferson Twp. residents. 'If in fact the stuff has any danger at all, I don’t know why they’d put it in a residential area,' he said.
He lauded the development that Dayton’s Perma-Fix is investigating a storage center in Newport, Ind., where the chemical weapon VX is stockpiled. 'Transporting this stuff, it's risky,' he said. 'Why don’t they just keep it there?'" Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "What the Army can't deny is there are major gaps in its and its contractors'
knowledge about the properties of VX hydrolysate and how best to handle
it. In the language of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, there are both
'known unknowns' and 'unknown unknowns' about the short- and long-term health
effects of human exposure to this material. The Army loses credibility and trust when it says it has plans for Dayton.
The Army set local acceptance as a condition to the material being brought
here--but won't come clean about what precisely that means. Hasty, uncertain plans. Cryptic communications. This is not the approach
that will win the Army the confidence of any community," Eddie Roth, commentary, Dayton Daily News.

NEWPORT, IN -- "Officials are considering temporarily
storing at the Newport Chemical Depot nearly 1 million gallons of a chemical
produced by the destruction of the deadly VX nerve agent. Parsons Engineering, the company the Army hired to build and operate the
VX disposal plant, has obtained military approval to explore building a
tank farm to store the byproduct, hydrolysate, said Jeff Brubaker, Army
site project manager," Associated Press.

JEFFERSON TWP --
"Citizens for the Responsible Destruction
of Chemical Weapons, which opposes a
plan to process a nerve agent by-product
at Perma-Fix of Dayton Inc., will rally
today and next Thursday. The group is
fighting the Army's plan to send hydrolysate,
the neutralized by-product, from Newport,
Ind., to the plant in Drexel to be treated
and discharged into the count's sanitary
sewage system. The rallies will be at
7 p.m. at West Third Street and Cherokee
Drive in Drexel. Call (513) 263-9033
or 268-7448 for more information,"
Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON
-- "'We're disappointed, of course,'
said Perma-Fix President Louis F. Centofanti,
who defended the company’s environmental
record. He said Perma-Fix would take
the county’s opposition 'into consideration,'
and noted Perma-Fix could treat the
material at one of its eight other locations,
mostly located in the southeastern United
States," Lynn Hulsey, Dayton
Daily News.Map: Perma-Fix facilities in the United States.

DAYTON -- "'We
don't want it. The community doesn't
want it,' Commission President Vicki
Pegg said Friday. If the resolution
does pass Tuesday, the commission would
be the 12th governmental body in Montgomery
County so far to oppose the plan. The
others are Dayton, Trotwood, Moraine,
New Lebanon and Miamisburg; the townships
of Jefferson, Perry, Miami, Harrison
and Jackson, as well as the Jefferson
Twp. school board," Jim DeBrosse,
Dayton Daily News.

ROCKVILLE, MD --
"'If the hydrolysate waste stream
is simply a corrosive wastewater, as
it has been represented to us, Perma-Fix
of Dayton Inc. is not require to obtain
any approval from Ohio EPA to treat
it through their industrial wastewater
pretreatment process,' Ohio EPA Director
Christopher Jones said in May 23 letter
to [Assistant Secretary of the Army
Claude] Bolton. And even if Perma-Fix
needed another permit, Jones wrote,
'public acceptance is not one of the
criteria Ohio law allows us to consider
when evaluating a permit application.'
[U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, Centerville,]
said in a phone interview Wednesday
that 'the Army is beginning to lose
credibility. If the Army thinks this
is public acceptance, then what do they
think 'safe' means?'" Jim DeBrosse,
Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "The program being peddled is said to be about homeland security, but the Army's case just doesn't add up. . . At bottom, the Army's initiative seems all about cost savings and convenience. It doesn't want to take the time, or spend the money, to better understand the risks or the best way of handling the hydrolysate. Instead, once the VX agent is neutralized, the Army wants to put the waste on trucks, kiss it goodbye and close down the Newport facility. The Miami Valley isn't interested in participating in that kind of experiment. The Army hasn't shown why anyone in this community or along the 195-mile route from Newport should assume these risks. The Army should come around and ask for sacrifice when it has a genuine need — not when it wants to save a few bucks," editorial, Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "The same local waste-treatment company being
considered for disposal of waste products from deadly VX nerve agent has
violated air-pollution standards for more than a year and could be sued
under the federal Clean Air Act, according to a formal notice filed Tuesday
by a residents' group. . . .Legal Aid attorney Ellis Jacobs filed the notice
of intent to sue on behalf of nearby residents as well as for Citizens for
the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons, a grassroots group opposed
to a U.S. Army plan to award Perma-Fix a $9 million contract to dispose
of 300,000 gallons of hydrolysate, the waste product from VX. The hydrolysate
would be shipped 195 miles from the Army's VX storage in Newport, Ind.,
starting in October," Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "VX is so deadly that a tiny amount of the thick, oily liquid can kill if it is inhaled or comes into contact with skin. The hydrolysate is not deadly, but is considered hazardous waste. Residents fear that a highway accident or plant mishap could spew it into their neighborhood," Patricia L. Pastore, Associated Press.

TERRA HAUTE, IN -- "The president of an organic wastewater treatment plant in Terre Haute says his facility could safely treat the byproduct of VX disposal. The Army has already selected a site for treatment of the waste -- in Dayton, Ohio -- but Dayton's citizens are battling that decision on environmental grounds. VX, a deadly nerve agent, is stored in containers near Newport. [Derrik Hagerman, president] said transportation costs are less for moving the waste from Newport to Terre Haute and there is less opportunity for an accident on the highway because his plant could accept one tanker a day," Patricia L. Pastore, Terra Haute Tribune-Star.

DAYTON -- "The Newport Chemical Depot is in a rural area. The closest population center is in Newport, Indiana, 2.6 miles away. Newport is 97.6% white and has no African American residents. The poverty rate in Newport is 9.1%. The community the Army has chosen to ship this material to our community, presents a stark contrast. Tens of thousands of people live within several miles of Perma-Fix. The Drexel neighborhood surrounds the facility. Houses are immediately across the street. There are more than 2000 people in Drexel alone and Drexel is 35.1% African American and 33.5 % of the households live in poverty," Laura Rench, Ellis Jacobs, Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons.

JEFFERSON TWP -- "'I request that the Army honor the will of the Jefferson Township Board of Trustees, and that of other local jurisdictions, who I expect will take similar action in the coming days,' [U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton] wrote to Assistant Secretary Claude Bolton," Jim Bebbington, Dayton Daily News.

DAYTON -- "As a dozen protesters wore surgical masks and carried signs across the street, a Jefferson Twp. company began a public outreach program Monday to explain its role in a U.S. Army program to destroy stockpiles of deadly VX nerve agent at a plant in Newport, Ind," Dale Dempsey, Dayton Daily News.